title: Atrial myxoma in a patient with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
abstract: Atrial myxoma is the most common primary cardiac tumor. Patients with atrial myxoma typically present with obstructive, embolic, or systemic symptoms; asymptomatic presentation is very rare. To our knowledge, isolated association of atrial myxoma with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy has been reported only once in the English-language medical literature. We report the case of an asymptomatic 71-year-old woman with known hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in whom a left atrial mass was incidentally identified on cardiac magnetic resonance images. After surgical excision of the mass and partial excision of the left atrial septum, histopathologic analysis confirmed the diagnosis of atrial myxoma. The patient was placed on preventive implantable cardioverter-defibrillator therapy and remained asymptomatic. The management of asymptomatic cardiac myxoma is a topic of debate, because no reports definitively favor either conservative or surgical measures.
authors.affiliation: J. Willis Hurst Internal Medicine Residency Program (Drs. Abdou and Hayek) and Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine (Dr. Williams), Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia 30322.
authors.forename: Mahmoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abdou
authors.forename: Salim
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hayek
authors.forename: Byron R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D058070:Asymptomatic Diseases; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures; D002312:Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D019560:Echocardiography, Three-Dimensional; D017548:Echocardiography, Transesophageal; D005260:Female; D006325:Heart Atria / Q000473:pathology; D006338:Heart Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D033162:Incidental Findings; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009232:Myxoma / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Abnormalities, multiple/diagnosis; cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic/diagnosis/physiopathology; heart atria/pathology; heart neoplasms/diagnosis/pathology/surgery; myxoma/diagnosis/pathology/surgery; risk factors